Spirit Taming

Chapter 86: Maria's Steps

"Stop searching for my beast. I do not bring him in to battle with me. I am here to train my skills and not my beast." The woman that was facing Maria saw that she was being ignored for a moment as Maria searched the arena.

"I can tell you have yours. That cape on your back, it doesn't move normally. It's your beast. That's fine by me. It won't change how this battle goes." The woman swung her pole ax towards Maria.

The result was a large clang where the pole ax hit the ground and seemingly became stuck in the tough arena floor. Maria knew instantly that the opponent she faced was not weak. She was definitely slower than her, but much stronger.

"You can only dodge? Get in to a real battle and show me some fight!" The woman seemed to be full of more energy second after second. The result was a large swing of her pole ax again. Maria just stepped from side to side dodging them. The best way seemed to be constant movement.

That pressure was making Maria forcefully change how she used her footwork. She couldn't just copy what she did when she had a bow and daggers. It would give her away to anyone watching. Therefore, she let the only thing she could think about enter her mind. How Lit moved.

Using their beast as inspiration was a very common way for tamers to train. Their beasts were the ones that represented them in battles. Whether it was the wilds, a dungeon, or against other people, they needed to be able to match their beast's movements to fight efficiently.

This being the case, Maria imagined herself to be following the smooth movements of a glow sting jellyfish. The floating movements that seemed to be without effort and precise. This was the goal that Maria had while she moved. Every time she dodged, her opponent put more pressure on her. It was perfect.

Pressure was fundamental to someone growing stronger. The pressure on someone in a battle would push them to strain their muscles and change their thinking. It could cause pain and be dangerous, yes, but it could breed greater strength than one thought themselves capable of.

This was the case for Maria. She couldn't even get close to her opponent due to the reach that the pole ax had. Yet, they were proving to be the best. When the ax swung toward Maria, she would copy the soft movements of Lit. she would dodge by a hair. It infuriated the woman with the pole ax.

After nearly five minutes of constant dodging, Maria felt that something had clicked in to place. There was a sense of calmness that overtook her mind while she watched the pole ax come at her slower than before. It was the ideal situation for her to duck under and move in for an attack.

The armor on the woman she was facing was tougher than most people's. This was because the women that Maria had been fighting focused on her own physical strength. Which was perfectly presented by her not bringing her tamed beast with her. Yet, it also gave too much confidence.

Maria had the chance to sneak in and stab with her daggers. The first was easily dodged when the woman realized she could not bring her pole ax back to attack Maria quickly enough. That allowed an opening for the second dagger to find the space between the woman's shoulder armor and chest plate. The perfect spot for a dagger to slide in and slice skin.

Since Lit had coated the blade in paralyzing poisons, the woman struggled to remain standing. She became drunk while swinging her pole ax from side to side. "That stupid poison will not beat…me!" The woman collapsed under exhaustion and poison. Maria had claimed victory and a new understanding of the foot work she should have been using all along.

"That was a good match. I almost thought she would get you a few times." Clark was waiting for Maria outside the arena. After the battle, Maria had not wanted to continue. Mostly because she wanted to train the new movement technique she had felt come together alone. It was better to train away from prying eyes.

"Do you have a name for that movement technique, Blue?" Clark Clark was careful to use their aliases while heading back to the main counter.

"I want to call it the sting step or maybe the glowing step or even the floating step would be good." Maria had too much rushing through her mind to respond calmly. She was very happy to have a movement technique that might catch up with Clark's.

"The sting step sounds like the steps hurt you…hmm, the float step makes more sense. You looked like you were floating out of range of the pole ax every time she tried to hit you with it." Clark gave his input and Maria seemed to agree fully.

"Oh, you are back. I saw that you both won multiple matches. Congratulations. We have recorded the information and already have identifications for you to use in the future. Please come again when we are having a tournament. It would be great to see you join the intermediate or advanced competitions."

"We will keep an ear open for when another will begin. We might need more experience." Clark took their identification cards and found that it was rune carved metal. The cards were more like plaques that could bend without breaking. Part of him wondered how this was made but stopped himself. If he looked in to it he was sure to cause trouble.

All the identification services within the city used secret magic and crafting techniques.

"I wish I saw your battles. You git to watch me fight one." Maria felt a little disheartened since Clark had managed to finish his battles before her.

"I only saw the end. So I saw the best part. You wouldn't have had fun with my matches. Every single one underestimated me so much because of my body size." Clark wasn't a tall and bulky person. He had lean muscles with a lot of force. Not bulky muscles.

"I did fight multiple people with swords though. They seemed to be the favorite weapons used. It makes me feel like I chose right with the spear. If I chose a sword I feel like people would be able to predict my moves much more easily." That made a lot of logical sense to Maria. The better someone knew a weapon the easier it would be to fight with it.

"Maybe I should learn a more unique weapon…" The idea came to Maria before Clark shook his head at her slowly.

"If you do that you will become mediocre at three weapons. I am only learning two because I might need years to master them." Clark was sure that Maria would be able to maintain two weapons. If she added a third she wouldn't make improvements as often. Now one would be able to handle learning three weapon styles at once. Let alone second styles to use them under an alias as well.

"I guess that's fair. Where do we go now?" The day had dragged on until evening. Maria was sure that it was better to head back to the academy and rest.

"We can head home. But I want to listen to what is going on around the city while we do. I am willing to bet that we will hear some good gossip in the market if we go back that way." Clark felt that the streets looked busier than usual. Since that was the case, he wanted to listen to what others had to say while they moved towards the academy.

"In that case, I will walk on the opposite side of the street. First one to hear what's up will be the winner." The little information gathering challenge presented by Maria sounded more than fun.

With his pride on the line, Clark listened carefully. He found that a few people were talking about growing fruit prices. Nothing that would drag people from their homes.

Other people spoke about the prices for horned rabbit meat being higher than usual and not knowing why. This struck Clark as odd since it should be much cheaper due to the many out and about in the wilds around the city.

"Phantom, I have an answer to our little game." Clark found Maria in front of him less than half an hour later. She had been following a small group of merchants that were resupplying their stalls.

"There is a frenzy going on. The horned rabbits are aggressive and some tamers even said they saw a giant horned rabbit making a den outside the city. That's also why the price for horned rabbit fur, meat, and horns is nearly double." It was all too clear who the victor was. Maria had been lucky to follow behind the merchants to get their information. Clark could only accept his loss with dignity.

Maria had won.